Classic FM do “popular” classical music, including film and TV scores (so a very broad interpretation of classical). I think you have to listen to Radio 3 if you want the hard stuff 
Edit: I’m definitely on the Classic FM end of the orchestral music appreciation scale, no Wagner for me!
I remember sitting in the waiting room while they were playing ‘Everyone’s a little bit racist’, which was fun. Room full of middle class white people so likely fairly accurate.
A staple of their output for years. I no longer listen to Classic FM, though. The adverts annoy me too much.
Classic FM will play some Wagner, I’m afraid. Certainly the Ride of the Valkyries now and again, and he has a couple of other famous and popular bits.
And Radio 3 play both film and game soundtracks - they even have whole programmes devoted to them!
Shows you how little time I spend listening to the radio!
Obviously this is of no relevance to anyone who isn’t interested in music that isn’t some sort of pop, but for anyone who is, Radio 3 is great - and especially at night and at weekends, when it plays more unusual and/or specialised stuff. Highly recommended if you’re either awake at night or have access to catch-up (eg BBC Sounds).
I fear I might be too chavvy for Radio 3 but we’ll see.
In my experience it’s more that the middle class white people are either ashamed or unaware of their racism. Most everyone else is still comfortable owning it.
I realised how great Spotify is at finding my sort of music. I never was into radio before but now, what’s the point? Even if I’m driving.
I’ve been lamenting the loss of Noisetrade. Several years back I was on it every day, finding new music. While I don’t have that kind of capacity right now, I was just noticing that there’s really no replacement. Bandcamp is good for keeping up with artists you already know, but not so good at finding groups. Pandora is still out there but takes a lot more work, taking notes and trying to follow up on a band that seems interesting on another platform. I’ve completely left Spotify due to the long ads and (I believe) the inability to listen to a specific song anymore. If you request a song do they now start a Pandora-esque station that will eventually get to that song?
My collection informs me that I could listen to music for roughly 45 days straight without repeating, so I don’t necessarily need to discover more. But it was nice to be able to discover more, in the past.
I was very happy to discover a term for the sort of music I’m likely to enjoy: “Common Practice Period”. For my taste, R3 is too inclined to go for modern atonal or discordant, which I really don’t appreciate.
When I listened to the radio in the car, it would be Classic FM until an advertisement, then R3 until something that hurt to listen to, then give up.
(But I do enjoy most of the R3 Composers of the Week, and Record Review, especially Building a Library.)
My partner Andy loves KEXP, a Seatle-based indie radio station. There is something magical about humans curating good music, people who are passionate and love music trying to share really cool stuff. Like many modern radio stations, you can listen online.
I will admit that I bounce off 40% of the stuff as too experimental or weird or discordant, but the other 60% is often amazing. Definitely worth a listen.
They’re also really focused on community building and mental health, and not in a granola-crunchy kinda way, but in an earnest and educated way. Refreshing in these dark times.
Also, Spotify is the devil. I lament the old days where it was easy to rank the Worst Companies on Earth (arms manufacturers, tobacco companies, Walmart, Amazon, oil companies…) but these days figuring out which devil is The Devil is tragically difficult. They all want to be dystopian villians! But Spotify has definitely earned a spot in there. Maybe top 10.
For one thing, I like that a human being has chosen the music and is talking about it.
And for another I might find something I enjoy but would never have heard of or dreamed of listening to - something not at all like what I usually listen to. Spotify’s not so good at “This isn’t like anything else you like, but I think it’s really good…”
My wife and I listen to the radio quite a lot. My radio station choice can be summarised as:
I really don’t understand Island living! Here you can’t talk about radio without talking about cities. It’s always, are we close enough to New York to get that station? NY went fuzzy, what’s the Philly station frequency?
Growing up it was 91X (91.1, grunge and alternative), B100 (100.7, popular stuff), Jammin Z90 (90.3, hip hop). 94.9 became a player later on, mostly an alternative to B100 but with more curated taste. I think 105.3 was classic rock.
But that was all San Diego, drive as far as LA and you lost half of them.
I have literally no idea about the DC stations. I have zero tolerance for a) static, b) ads, c) top40/billboard so all my energy has gone from CD > Cassette adapters to CD > FM, to iPod > FM, and finally to the beautiful modern day of bluetooth.
Edit: Well, this is interesting. Radio Stations in San Diego, California.. A ton has changed, including the mighty B100 has been taken over by Mexican radio. Wonder if that was demographics/opportunity or if the station foundered and someone more savvy took over the well known frequency.
I’m a big fan of BBC Radio 6 Music. For a long time I’d find new stuff from “Introducing with Tom Robinson”. I distinctly remember hearing very early Ed Sheeran stuff on there.
Don’t think I’ve used the radio in my car in the nearly 7 years I’ve owned it.
It occurs to me now that as a kid I used to listen to a lot of radio … on the TV? Didn’t have a DAB radio but you could get them on UK Freeview couldn’t you?
We do also have local radio. My local station when I was growing up was called 2-ten FM, which apparently made sense when it started and they named it after its MW wavelength…
I use the radio in my car constantly. But that’s because I have it on one particular frequency which the Bluetooth FM transmitter I have is set to so I can play stuff off my phone. Only issue is if I travel to certain areas, there’s interference from actual radio stations that are using that frequency, but for around my home and my work commute, it’s perfect!
My wife and I generally have different tastes in music. I’m into classic country music and she’s into heavier metal and hip-hop. We meet in the middle with classic rock, pop-punk, and some alt rock.
When I drive, I only switch to music when I’ve gone through my podcast queue, but I can go long stretches with no music or anything. She cannot be in the car without music. I joked with her the other day that she can’t stand to be alone with her own thoughts, but there are serious truths and undertones to that well.
It absolutely feels weird to be driving without music or a podcast playing. Annoyingly Spotify has decided recently that it’ll just stop playing a playlist after the first song. I’m glad my commute isn’t long.